TMC
05-19-2023, 07:51 PM
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/cheers-vs-seinfeld-the-dos-and-donts-for-how-to-end-a-beloved-sitcom-185915268.html
What these series finales can teach us about ending a popular comedy, according to our esteemed panel of TV writers.
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/aLzI_sGWNAmHIoUfzGEiAg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xMzUwO2NmPXdlYnA-/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2023-05/b579aa20-f666-11ed-9ddf-6cf5a1ab5bd1
Ethan Alter·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
Fri, May 19, 2023 at 11:59 AM PDT
What's the deal with modern-day sitcom series finales? Twenty-five years ago this month, 76.3 million viewers tuned in to NBC for Seinfeld's farewell episode. And five years before that on the same network, an estimated 93 million people toasted the super-sized end of Cheers. Those are overnight numbers you'd never see a comedy achieving in today's fractured TV landscape — not on network television, premium cable or streaming. And the legacy of those finales isn't just a numbers game: creatively, few sitcom finales made since have made as lasting an impression, both positive... and negative.
In case you haven't binged either series recently, here's a quick refresher on their respective endgames. Written by series creators Glen and Les Charles, Cheers's feature-length finale, "One for the Road," aired on May 20, 1993, and found Shelly Long's Diane Chambers making her long-awaited return to the Boston bar where everyone knows your name, knocking her ex, Sam Malone (Ted Danson) for a loop.
After a whirlwind romantic reunion, Sam decides he's getting out of the beer-slinging game and moving with Diane to California, encouraging the rest of Cheers's regulars to similarly move on with their lives. Meanwhile, Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) marries her plumber boyfriend (Tom Berenger), and Woody Boyd (Woody Harreslon) improbably wins a seat on Boston's city council just in time for Sam to go back on his own advice and return to his one true love: Cheers.
As for Seinfeld, co-creator Larry David returned to the series after a two-year hiatus to pen "The Finale," which aired in a two-hour block on May 14, 1998. The episode begins with Jerry and George (Seinfeld and Jason Alexander) finally getting the chance to make their sitcom pilot for NBC and celebrate by taking Elaine and Kramer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards) on a jaunt to Paris.
Here's what the series finales for Cheers and Seinfeld have to teach us about ending a long-running sitcom. (Photo: Illustration by Kyle McCauley for Yahoo/Photo: Getty Images)
What's the deal with modern-day sitcom series finales? Twenty-five years ago this month, 76.3 million viewers tuned in to NBC for Seinfeld's farewell episode. And five years before that on the same network, an estimated 93 million people toasted the super-sized end of Cheers. Those are overnight numbers you'd never see a comedy achieving in today's fractured TV landscape — not on network television, premium cable or streaming. And the legacy of those finales isn't just a numbers game: creatively, few sitcom finales made since have made as lasting an impression, both positive... and negative.
Before they can American airspace, though, the quartet's private jet lands in the small Massachusetts town of Latham. While killing time, the friends witness a carjacking and decline to intervene — a choice that lands them in court courtesy of a recently passed "Good Samaritan" law. Cue everyone they've ever wronged in the past — from the Soup Nazi to the Marble Rye lady — descending on Latham to make sure Jerry and his pals get what's coming to them. Sure enough, the series ends with the four stars sentenced to a year-long stint in jail
You couldn't ask for a pair of sitcom finales that are as different from each other while still staying true to the spirits of their respective shows. That's why both episodes could, and should, be taught in schools and writer's rooms as guides for how to wrap up a long-running, much-loved comedy. That's why Yahoo Entertainment assembled a panel of experts who have written TV comedies themselves — and teach the next generation of sitcom writers — to break down the Cheers and Seinfeld finales for a handy do's and don'ts guide.
Remember, these experts come not to bury the creative teams behind these episodes, but to educate others on the way they approached the Herculean task of ending a long-running, much-loved TV comedy. After all, if writing a sitcom finale were easy, each one would score 70 million-90 million viewers.
What these series finales can teach us about ending a popular comedy, according to our esteemed panel of TV writers.
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/aLzI_sGWNAmHIoUfzGEiAg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTI0MDA7aD0xMzUwO2NmPXdlYnA-/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2023-05/b579aa20-f666-11ed-9ddf-6cf5a1ab5bd1
Ethan Alter·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
Fri, May 19, 2023 at 11:59 AM PDT
What's the deal with modern-day sitcom series finales? Twenty-five years ago this month, 76.3 million viewers tuned in to NBC for Seinfeld's farewell episode. And five years before that on the same network, an estimated 93 million people toasted the super-sized end of Cheers. Those are overnight numbers you'd never see a comedy achieving in today's fractured TV landscape — not on network television, premium cable or streaming. And the legacy of those finales isn't just a numbers game: creatively, few sitcom finales made since have made as lasting an impression, both positive... and negative.
In case you haven't binged either series recently, here's a quick refresher on their respective endgames. Written by series creators Glen and Les Charles, Cheers's feature-length finale, "One for the Road," aired on May 20, 1993, and found Shelly Long's Diane Chambers making her long-awaited return to the Boston bar where everyone knows your name, knocking her ex, Sam Malone (Ted Danson) for a loop.
After a whirlwind romantic reunion, Sam decides he's getting out of the beer-slinging game and moving with Diane to California, encouraging the rest of Cheers's regulars to similarly move on with their lives. Meanwhile, Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) marries her plumber boyfriend (Tom Berenger), and Woody Boyd (Woody Harreslon) improbably wins a seat on Boston's city council just in time for Sam to go back on his own advice and return to his one true love: Cheers.
As for Seinfeld, co-creator Larry David returned to the series after a two-year hiatus to pen "The Finale," which aired in a two-hour block on May 14, 1998. The episode begins with Jerry and George (Seinfeld and Jason Alexander) finally getting the chance to make their sitcom pilot for NBC and celebrate by taking Elaine and Kramer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards) on a jaunt to Paris.
Here's what the series finales for Cheers and Seinfeld have to teach us about ending a long-running sitcom. (Photo: Illustration by Kyle McCauley for Yahoo/Photo: Getty Images)
What's the deal with modern-day sitcom series finales? Twenty-five years ago this month, 76.3 million viewers tuned in to NBC for Seinfeld's farewell episode. And five years before that on the same network, an estimated 93 million people toasted the super-sized end of Cheers. Those are overnight numbers you'd never see a comedy achieving in today's fractured TV landscape — not on network television, premium cable or streaming. And the legacy of those finales isn't just a numbers game: creatively, few sitcom finales made since have made as lasting an impression, both positive... and negative.
Before they can American airspace, though, the quartet's private jet lands in the small Massachusetts town of Latham. While killing time, the friends witness a carjacking and decline to intervene — a choice that lands them in court courtesy of a recently passed "Good Samaritan" law. Cue everyone they've ever wronged in the past — from the Soup Nazi to the Marble Rye lady — descending on Latham to make sure Jerry and his pals get what's coming to them. Sure enough, the series ends with the four stars sentenced to a year-long stint in jail
You couldn't ask for a pair of sitcom finales that are as different from each other while still staying true to the spirits of their respective shows. That's why both episodes could, and should, be taught in schools and writer's rooms as guides for how to wrap up a long-running, much-loved comedy. That's why Yahoo Entertainment assembled a panel of experts who have written TV comedies themselves — and teach the next generation of sitcom writers — to break down the Cheers and Seinfeld finales for a handy do's and don'ts guide.
Remember, these experts come not to bury the creative teams behind these episodes, but to educate others on the way they approached the Herculean task of ending a long-running, much-loved TV comedy. After all, if writing a sitcom finale were easy, each one would score 70 million-90 million viewers.